more censorship

In India all films are censored before they get released, foreign and local alike. Basically it is the morality police who go through the films and decide what is and is not appropriate for adults in India to view. Any sex scene, even if it doesn’t show anything is usually cut (badly at that!). Often other random things are cut as well — which I don’t typically know since it’s cut and I’m seeing it here! But you can usually tell when something is chopped out since there will be a jump in the story or you can actually see where it’s been sliced up.

Today I went to see a Romanian film “4 months, 3 weeks, 2 days”. First I have to say I am amazed that it even came to India. This is only the 3rd foreign (non English language) film I have seen here. And trust me, I try to see them all as that’s all I watched back in the US! Besides it being foreign, it is also very heavy subject matter. It is about a girl getting an illegal abortion in communist Romania. Anyhow.. the point of this whole post is to say that at one point the character walked towards the camera showing her pubic hair — well that’s what it would have been if the censor board didn’t scribble over her privates! Seriously, someone got a magic marker and scribbled! In a very serious movie, this was pretty funny.

So there is another job that someone has in India.. scribbling on films!